Creating an OB Van in the Cloud

Outdoor broadcast (OB) is no easy feat. Every year broadcasters mobilize fleets of trucks, heaps of hardware, and armies of operators to produce a live event for audiences worldwide. Bringing these production logistics to bear is no easy feat, and with advances in cloud technology, it’s no longer necessary.

Chyron LIVE makes it possible to produce a live event and deliver the top-notch broadcasts viewers demand — without the sky-high costs and complex logistics of traditional production models dependent on mobile trucks. The cloud-native platform offers all the live production capabilities typically packed into a truck. As a result, operators can work collaboratively from any location, using a web-based interface for switching of live cameras, rich multilayered 3D CG, media playout, multi-cam replay, telestration, and audio mixing.

Challenge: OB Vans are a Heavy Lift

Your typical OB van is an expensive balancing act. Racks of hardware chasses, desk space for bespoke control interfaces, in-vehicle real estate for operators, and a vehicle robust enough to safely transport the immense mass of it all. Whether renting a truck or buying one outright, costs add up fast. The massive upfront expenditure associated with OB vans can be prohibitive for both large-scale and small-scale organizations alike.

Larger-scale network broadcasters may find themselves reluctant to expand their programming and justify new content ventures given the daunting cost of expanding the OB fleet. Meanwhile, smaller-tier companies are likely to find the cost entirely prohibitive, instead resorting to utilizing flypacks, which come with their own logistical and shipping complexities when dealing with varying production locales.

Solution: Lightweight Cloud Video Production

With cloud video production platforms like Chyron LIVE, production teams can deliver the same high-end broadcast quality of an OB van – while eliminating the vast upfront expenditures entirely. Chyron LIVE takes the PRIME Platform’s production switcher, real-time motion graphics, clip playout, and audio mixer modules – and makes them available in a web-accessible all-in-one production environment. Cut and dissolve between video sources, overlay Chyron-grade CG graphics, play your clip packages, and get the right audio levels in the mix.

Uniquely Chyron LIVE offers multi-cam replay and telestration for top-tier sports productions, with the ability to comb through your camera footage, clip off a replay clip, add dynamic telestration elements to highlight the crucial elements of the play, and add it to a playlist for highlight reel playout. Perfect features for taking your soccer streams to the next level.

When critical control room functionality is decoupled from the truck and shifted to the cloud, production teams can move to a lighter (literally), more agile model. Free from the physical constraints of the OB van, they have unprecedented freedom in bringing their talent to different live events, in spite of geographic distances and tight time frames. Supporting a pay-as-you-go model rather than a hefty initial outlay, Chyron’s cloud-based platform also removes financial barriers to production.

Challenge: Restrictive Mobile Production Logistics

While many production operators are well familiar with the upfront costs of an OB van, the costs don’t ease up after the initial purchase. Fuel for the vehicle as you travel from event-to-event and back to home base, hiring localized operators or flying them in to operate on location, hotel and per diem for road trip scenarios – you will encounter these costs with almost every production moving forward. 

Not only do these costs eat away at your budget, but in an increasingly connected and globalized world, the physical bounds of a production truck restrict your ability to repurpose your superb production equipment for events in faraway places. Essentially, you may find the ability to leverage the significant investment made for an OB van increasingly difficult to maximize.

By centralizing production capability in the cloud, the budget typically allocated to these expenses can instead be dedicated to creating the most engaging broadcast for viewers.

Solution: Launching Live Production Anywhere

With cloud production workflows, you only have to worry about Point A (video capture of your event) and Point B (where you want to output your show) – the in-between part is more straightforward than ever. As camera feeds encode and ingest into regionalized cloud environments, they become immediately available to Chyron LIVE production units as you spin them up. 

For your cloud production, your operators of choice (wherever they may be in the world) can access your cloud control room, remotely collaborate in real-time, and put together an incredible show. Technical directors, graphic playout operators, replay and telestration ops, as well as sportscasters – can do their job from wherever is most comfortable.

With true remote production capability, production companies can do away with the significant travel and accommodation costs of sending on-staff operators, as well as sourcing local talent at a premium dollar value.

Creating Unforgettable Experiences

When broadcasters and production teams leverage Chyron LIVE to escape the limitations of the hardware-laden OB van and to free themselves from the constraints of complex logistics, they have the freedom they need to do what they do best. With professional-grade control room capabilities, amazing flexibility in hiring incredible operator talent, and the unique agility that comes with working in the cloud environment, they won’t be sorry to part with the traditional OB van model and move to Chyron LIVE.